This One Chart Shows Why Having Children Is Becoming So Expensive

In August, the US Agriculture Department estimated that having
and raising a child in America costs
over $245,000.

You could argue that the steadily rising price tag is due to the
violin lessons, summer camps, and organic cheese sticks that seem
to have become mandatory in recent years, but a chart from the
Brookings Institution boils the rise down to one thing in
particular: the disproportionate cost of childcare and tuition as
it relates to US median income.

Researchers compiled data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics'
Consumer Price Index to create the chart below, which illustrates
the alarming rate at which two of parents' biggest costs —
childcare and tuition — are increasing. We first came across it
over at
Jezebel.